Bertel King, Jr.
Contributing since April, 2013
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3518articles
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About Bertel King, Jr.
Bertel is a Linux user who likes budget smartphones more than flagships, uses a custom ROM, and gets his apps from F-Droid. When he isn't writing short stories for Android Police, you might find him penning the fictional kind. Otherwise, look for him reading pixels that were converted to ink and paper.
Latest Articles
The Nextbit Robin is a nice phone, but it's the software that makes or breaks the experience. People who purchase one are not merely getting nice hardware and specs, they're buying the idea of using remote servers to offload apps and data they've run out of space for on their phones.
Custom ROMs are fun. More than that, they offer ways to significantly extend the software life of phones. Manufacturer decides it no longer wants to support hardware? Hopefully someone out there will take up the mantle. But to do that, they need the kernel source code for a given device.
Last week John Legere unveiled Uncarrier 11, the one where T-Mobile resorts to outright bribes (excuse me, giveaways) to buy customer loyalty. Is this something to be upset over? Not really. Free stuff is free stuff.
Napster is back, again. The original service peaked and plummeted decades ago, but the name has staying power. It's so recognizable that Rhapsody is changing its name to Napster in an attempt to gain more subscribers.
Google Fiber is high-speed internet the likes of which most of us can only dream of. For a handful of states, Google's effort to get people online faster is already a reality. Roughly six metros are set to get the experience at some point in the future. Another dozen are being considered, and today Google has announced Dallas as the latest city to make that list.
Nearly three years after Hangouts combined instant messaging and SMS, Facebook Messenger is doing the same. It's Facebook official.
US Bank was one of the launch partners for Android Pay, but not every card worked. Using a Visa? You were good to go. A MasterCard? Not so much.
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- The 5.5" version of the Zenfone 2 Laser (ZE550KL) has just also received the Marshmallow update, almost a month after the ZE500KL.
The ZenFone 2 was one of the best budget phones to launch last summer, and the Laser variant (named after a laser auto-focus module) was a good follow-up. Now the latter (ZE500KL model) is getting its Android 6.0 update, WW_13.10.6.16_M3.6.44.
The OnePlus 3 is coming. So do you start saving up money to buy the latest device? You could... or you can do your budget a favor and grab one of the company's existing devices. OnePlus has just dropped the prices for all three of its phones.
Honda offers Android Auto on the 2016 Civic and Accord, but the 2017 NSX will be the first vehicle from Honda's luxury brand, Acura.
Checking remaining battery life is a task many of us have to do far more often than we like. In Android N, the experience is a tad different from what you may be accustomed to in Marshmallow.
Want to change the streaming quality of the YouTube video? Tap the overflow button in the top right corner. Options will appear in the middle of the video for Captions, Quality, Report, and Cardboard.
Waiting on a carrier is not the only way to get the most recent version of Android onto your device. There's the option to flash a custom ROM instead.
Have you even seen a phone launch occur in space? No, you haven't. And after OnePlus announces its next flagship phone, the OnePlus 3, you may feel like you have. The company intends to launch its latest phone from a virtual space station.
The latest version of Android is currently making the rounds. People with Samsung's two-year-old flagship are waiting, and they won't be left out. Carriers are gradually pushing Marshmallow to that device.
Mobile payments are often viewed as a replacement for cash and cards. Why carry layers of bills and plastic in your wallet when you can simply make purchases with your phone? But without universal acceptance, the reality is that there are places where swiping your phone isn't an option. Sometimes even a card won't do. You need cash. And what do you need to get cash from the ATM? A card. Great.
Robots are coming. Fortunately, they look more like Sonny than the Terminator. And they go by a cute name — Pepper.
With Google's annual developer conference going on, the company is pumping out news about developing things. Makes sense, I guess.
Google may design most of the Android Wear experience, but the company doesn't control everything. One poorly designed app is all it takes to sour someone's impression of a platform. And with Android Wear getting a major update, that would be a shame. So to provide users with the best experience and increase chances that they will keep an app around, Google has released design guidelines for the latest version of its smart watch platform.
The day has come. Okay, not quite. But you've waited a long time for Android apps to come to Chrome OS. You've left comments. You've replied to comments. You even left more comments. Now your work is being rewarded. As we've all recently heard, Google plans to bring the Play Store to Chromebooks. At Google I/O today, the company has made things official.